Manamani Village

I am not alone here in volunteering in Manamani Village, for the month of January there were also 2 other volunteers in the same village and 2 more in near by villages. We are each here for our own reasons but we are bonded together by the welcoming spirit that people have shown towards us, the shared experience of learning the very difficult language of Tshivenda, and often by the reality that we really are the only "Makuwa's" (white people!) in the village or in town. Thus this often causes many humour moments such as numerous marriage proposals! (None of us have accepted.... yet!. )

Although I am here in this rural area of South Africa I have made friends from Australia, Holland and the USA. Our time together is often short as we are each busy with our projects but it is always great to get together to hear how everyone is doing.

I found out about this placement through www.volunteer.org.nz - they also offer many other placements through our the world! The organisation that I am being directly supported through is Zote projects- and it's founders were born and raised in the village of Manamani! www.zoteworldwide.org